


That one Santa picture

by xserenity



Series: Dick Grayson is 3 years old [7]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Christmas, Elf costume, Gen, Holiday, Photo time, Santa pictures, family photo, wishlist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 09:05:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13096851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xserenity/pseuds/xserenity
Summary: Jason was quite opposed to doing this, but he couldn't help but give in when Dick used those adorable puppy eyes on him.And thus, they ended up at the mall, waiting in line for a photo with Santa Claus.





	That one Santa picture

It was that time of the year again, the one holiday Jason tended to avoid but could never. Not when Dick was hounding him about it. Spewing things like the holidays is about family time, thus roping him in to do holiday activities with the family.

Like stupid _ugly sweater_ exchanges. Breakfast in bed. Waffle morning on Christmas day. Christmas feast. Family photos. Opening presents together. Gift shopping and literally anything else he could think of. Seriously, the man had a _gigantic_ list of events to do just for one stinking holiday.

Jason thought he could have avoided it this year, but _oh no._ That wasn't happening. At the very least and to his luck, it wasn't as bad as he expected it to be. Not when Dick was a three year old and couldn't make him do things. Okay, well, _some_ things. At least he didn't have to put up with all of Dick's Christmas _‘must-dos.’_ He really only had to do a few that the boy wanted and as requested by Bruce as well.

One being photos with _Santa Claus._ Not just _any_ Santa Claus. Nope. They actually had to venture to the mall where the ‘fake’ Santa Claus was at. When asked why they couldn’t just hire someone to dress as him and come to their house, Bruce just simply said that it ruined the _‘spirit’_ of Christmas. For fuck's sake, like he even had any holiday spirit to begin with. 

Jason sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

"Why are we doing this again?"

Tim scrunched his nose and scratched at the top of his hair as he shifted his hat aside. "Something about the experience."

"Tt," Damian scoffed, seemingly moody about having to come to the mall with the family. "This is ridiculous."

"Now boys, we are doing this for the sake of Dick. He needs to experience what it's like to meet Santa," Bruce explained and stared at each of his children.

Jason rolled his eyes and shifted the boy who was clipped around his waist. "Right. With a fa—"

" _Jason,_ " Tim warned and glared at the man, hushing him from spilling a dirty secret.

"...Of course," Jason zipped his lips shut and lowered his eyes to Dick, hoping that he hadn't heard what he was about to say. Luckily for him, his attention was elsewhere. His bright blue eyes were wide and glimmering in excitement. His tiny lips were curled into a smile and he was bouncing around, pointing at the man in red and white.

"Santa!" He screamed and fluttered his eyes back to Jason. "Jesson! It's Santa!" 

"Yes, it's Santa," Jason answered and turned to look in the direction Dick was pointing at. There, up ahead sat a man dressed in the famous ol' St. Nick's outfit. He was seated in a chair on top of a nicely decorated platform filled with trees and wreathes and a backdrop of a house. It was festive with bright colors of blues, greens and red filling the entire space of where they were about to have a family photo taken. Though the line was massive long and they had about a group of 15 families in front of them. Even Bruce Wayne couldn't cut a line for fear of ruining the children's wish to meet Santa.

Fuck, Jason was tired of waiting but he couldn't just leave. Not with Dick looking so excited and adorably dressed in his _elf_ outfit. He had on an emerald tunic that draped over his red and white striped pants. A tiny belt secured around his waist and a red shirt to go underneath his tunic. Dick's feet were covered in cute pointy green shoes, almost like his famous Robin outfit. And of course, the outfit wouldn't be complete without an elf's hat.

Much to say, Dick was the cutest out of all of them considering they were _all_ dressed as elves except for Bruce and Alfred which kind of infuriated Jason.

"I can't see why you two aren't dressed as elves as well," Tim made a comment and was attempting to fix his hat yet again.

"We are far too old for such a thing Master Tim," Alfred said.

"Tt. And we aren't?"

"You're 13 Damian. You're not old," Bruce added and Damian all but glared at his father. True enough, it really should just be Dick and Damian wearing the outfits, but one way or another, both Jason and Tim ended up in one too. He blamed it on Dick really.

"Blame Dick," Jason said and pinched the little booger on the cheek. Dick blinked at the man, confused and tilted his head to the side.

"Wuh?" He questioned.

"You—" Jason grumbled and poked at his belly. "Your fault we're in this situation." Jason was so not happy being stuck in a green outfit that was meant for children. Seriously, Santa's helpers are like, teenagers and kids. Definitely not a grown adult man who was rather too large and too thick to be wearing such an outfit. Not to mention, he'd been getting strange stares from those passing by.

"But—" He quivered. "Ewf!" That wasn't really an argument but Jason couldn't exactly be mad at the boy.

"You are lucky you're cute."

Dick still didn't understand and scrunched his nose. "Cute!" He repeated and Jason just shook his head.

It all started when someone, _someone_ who shall not be named (Bruce) mentioned Santa in front of Dick. And then suddenly, Dick was stuck on wanting to meet the man in red and kept talking about it over and over. He'd force Jason and Tim and Damian to watch holiday movies with him that had Santa Claus in it. And then he mentioned he wanted to be Santa's helper because it was _"too much wowk for Santa! Me wanna hewp!"_ and thus, the suggestion came up, courtesy of Alfred, that they go and meet this ‘Santa Claus.’

That sent a wave of excitement through Dick and he couldn't stop blabbing about it and asking when and where and _"can it be soon? Pwease?"_ It was just too adorable and endearing that they couldn't help but submit to his request. Now, Jason wanted it to be simple, but Bruce decided to make it complicated and make them go through the whole experience since they'd never actually done one before as a complete family. True fact, but Jason still wasn't interested. Though he had no say when Dick was giving him those damn puppy dog eyes with those pretty blues of his and putting tears at work.

Ugh. Okay, so he agreed. Then when Dick asked them to all be elves, Jason disagreed though the moment Dick’s vision got just the tiniest bit glassy, Jason gave in. But he wasn't going at it alone so he brought up the idea to Dick to get everyone to do it. Which the boy was successful at. He couldn't quite make Bruce or Alfred since the two argued they were too "old" to help Santa and somehow convinced Dick that they will just help from the sidelines. At least the most they did was wear the hat.

"When ouw tuwn?" Dick smacked his lips and asked. He wiggled around impatiently, wanting to see Santa soon.

"Soon hopefully," Jason answered and looked at the line before them. It seemed to be slimming down just a bit but still moving at a snail's pace. If only they moved faster then they'd be done and out of there.

Dick sighed and wrapped his arms tight around Jason's neck, folding in close to rest his cheek on Jason's shoulder. "Jay, stowy?"

"What?" Jason blinked. "Now?"

"I bowed."

Oh god, Dick and his ups and down. It was quite a task to adapt to his random moments. Like sometimes he’d be excited and the next moment he’d lose interest and proclaim he was bored. Couldn't he focus on anything more than five minutes?

"Ah well, it's too loud for a story," Jason said.

Dick whined and huffed a breath. He lifted his head back up and stared at Jason in the eyes before he turned to look at Tim and Damian who were unhappily playing on their phone. 

"Game!" Dick said and held out his hand.

Tim paused his actions and looked up at the boy, found his hand stretched out towards him with fingers wiggling. "Come again?"

"Can I pway?" Dick asked with pleading eyes.

"Uh, I guess so," Tim answered and briefly poked at his screen to pull something up before he carefully slipped his phone into Dick's small hands. "Don't drop it."

"Kay," he replied and firmly gripped the large cell phone in hand as he started pressing around the screen, attempting to play some game that Tim had pulled up for him.

A good while passed by until it was finally their turn and thank god, Jason was about to just ditch and he didn't care if Dick cried or not. He was so done waiting and standing for something he didn't want to do but was only doing to satisfy the boy. 

Jason carefully set Dick onto the ground and gave him a gentle push so he'd walk up towards the jolly ol' man who was holding out his hands towards him. 

"Ho ho ho," Santa said and smiled at Dick. "Why, aren't you a cute little elf?"

Dick seemed a little frozen in place with his tiny feet planted to the ground, not moving an inch further. He reached out a hand to cling onto the edge of Jason's pants, clutching on tightly. He looked a little scared—wait no, embarrassed. His cheeks were flushed a little red and his eyes were frantically searching around, moving from his family to Santa.

Jason just chuckled softly, surprised at seeing a shy Dick. That was all too rare knowing how much of a confident show-off the older man was.

"Come on Dick, don't you want to talk to Santa?" Jason questioned and crouched down to his side to give him a bit of encouragement.

"But—" he whispered. "What say?"

Ah. He didn't know what he wanted to tell Santa.

"Anything," Jason said with a smile and pecked his cheek. "Tell Santa what you want for Christmas and that you want to help him. Okay? Don't be shy."

Dick curled his lips into a curious pout and thought about it for a moment before he nodded and released his hold of Jason. Slowly, he toddled over towards Santa and reached out his arms for the man to pick him up and settle him onto his lap.

Geez that was a cute sight. Tiny elf Dick sitting happily on Santa's lap as he stared at him in awe, ready to ask for his Christmas gift and wishes. Jason pulled out his phone and started snapping photos of the moment. The rest of the family was already ready, each one of them with their phones pulled out and happily clicking away. It was a hilarious sight but they all couldn't help but adore their 'youngest' at the moment.

Jason waited patiently, watching Dick's every move. Studying him as he leaned in to wrap his hand around Santa's ear, whispered what he suppose was his wish. The man's eyes lit up and he broke out into a wide smile as he laughed with his 'ho ho hos' and then patted Dick on the back. 

"You are a good boy, son," Santa said. "Don't worry my dear boy, your wish will be granted."

Dick smiled brightly and clapped his hands. "Thanks Santa!" He grinned and then reached out to playfully tap as his cheek, a weird gesture that he often liked to do. It was a compliment whenever he was happy, at least when it was the ‘gentle’ tap. It wasn’t something he should do to strangers, but well, Santa didn't seem to mind and just laughed it off.

"Okay, you guys are ready to take a picture," a lady said, one of the 'elf' helpers who'd been assisting with the photos. 

"Alright, file in guys," Jason said and walked right over to where Santa and Dick were. The faster they got their picture taken, the quicker they could leave. 

The family huddled around Santa in the chair, with the tallest in the back and the shortest in the front. The lady helped position them so they all fit nicely into the backdrop for the photo and making sure they were all closely knit together. With a quick 3, 2, 1, a photo was taken followed by a few more shots. With that, they were done and Jason retrieved Dick back into his arms.

"So, how was it?" Jason asked Dick as the boy leaned in and kissed him out of the blue on the cheeks. 

"Fun! Santa is noice," Dick said, still wearing a grin on his face.

"Oh? Did you ask for something nice?" Jason questioned, following closely behind Bruce and Alfred who were heading towards the parking garage to where their car was parked.

"Yes!"

"Wishes?"

"Mhm!" 

"What did you ask for?" Jason knew he wouldn't say but he was curious anyways.

"It's a secwet!" Dick hid his lips behind his hands as he giggled. "It won come twue if I tell!" 

Okay. Fact, sort of. "Okay then. I guess I'll just have to wait and see, yeah?"

"Mhm!" Dick nodded.

Though Jason didn't know what Dick asked for, he was sure he could find out considering they had his wish list.

 _...Wait._ On second thought, they didn't have his wish list because Dick never made one.

And then suddenly, it dawned on him.

" _Fuck_ ," Jason cursed aloud, causing the others to come to a stop and stare at him.

"What?" Bruce questioned with an arched brow.

"We forgot to get Dick to write a wish list to Santa."

With that fact lingering the air, the family groaned aloud and he could see Alfred shaking his head in shame at them. How could they have forgotten the most important step?

"Okay, guess we need to do that."

"Do wut?" Dick asked in confusion.

"Wish list. You need to write a wish list for Santa so he remembers. Can you do that?" Jason asked.

"Wi-what?"

Jason clicked his tongue, mimicking Damian. "What you want for Christmas. When we get home, you'll write a letter of what you want to Santa and we'll deliver it to him, okay?"

That seemed to have gotten him to understand and Dick nodded his head in agreement. "Okay! Can I gib to Santa?"

"Uh well, we can mail it to Santa? He's kind of too busy with everything else."

Dick frowned at that, but he seemed more or less okay with the fact though. "Okay. Can I make it pwetty?" 

"Of course you can."

Dick yelped in excitement, no longer bummed about not getting to meet Santa again. Jason sighed in relief, glad he remembered that they needed a list from Dick or else, they wouldn't know what to get him. Though he wasn't exactly sure what he told Santa in the first place.

"Oh, Dick, remember to write what you just asked for. So Santa doesn't forget, okay?"

"Kay!" 

And that should do the trick. Hopefully so. 


End file.
